Tim Quirk, head of Android global content programming, had two takeaways for a room filled with people from Nashville's music business at Thursday's Google for Creators event: "Don't fetishize the past," and "music is priceless."

He pointed to an article in The New Yorker that highlighted a writer's nostalgia for record shops and obstacles posed by on-demand music. While Quirk said he is frustrated when people glorify the way things used to be, he also said music cannot be devalued and pointed to a shifting model in the music industry that can lead to opportunity.

"We are here to help you through that maelstrom of musical choice," he said today at Anthem. "We don't do it the old-fashioned way, by annointing a handful of artists as geniuses and declaring selected albums as masterpieces. We do it by building services that let thousands of potential masterpieces find their ideal audiences."

Google for Creators was organized by FLO{thinkery} to offer insights to the city's creative industries on how they can better utilize Google and YouTube to build their brand and monetize content, bringing together two industries that have not always worked together. The event drew about 400 attendees — artists, producers, tech and music entrepreneurs.

"Creators plus Google equals the new music business," said Mark Montgomery, founder of FLO. "We have the potential ... to be the epicenter of the new music business."

YouTube executives shared products such as Google Hangouts, which allows users to broadcast events; Google Play, which is a cloud service for music; and offered monetization techniques for artists on YouTube.

"It's absolutely relevant," said Andrew Cohen, who founded Young Entertainment Professionals and works at Crush Management. "We have a lot of independent artists. [It's important for] someone who's got original content and wants to figure out how they can make sure they [have] ownership of it and monetization of it."

Jake Coco, an artist based in Los Angeles, used YouTube to propel his career and advised local artists to make as many videos as they can.

"It changed my life," he said, attributing his success as an artist and launching a company to implementing YouTube videos.

Songwriter Steve Bogard attended a CEO group for music leaders in Washington, D.C. , Wednesday. Between that event and the Google for Creators today, he said he sees significant reconciliation between the tech and music industries.

"Both events showed movement toward the center, toward commerce and creativity," Bogard said. "There are always going to be naysayers. [Most music leaders] were positive about the fact we have to have conversations. Tech and muisc have to come together. Nashville is the place for that."